Good news - lots of reading. Nerd news - I started early.

This is a good news / nerd news post.  I'd like to tell you that I'm bad news, but I am just a nerd.

I ordered my books for the four classes I will be taking this fall (beginning September 7) this last week and was absolutely thrilled with the fact that Amazon saved me a lot of money.  I love Amazon - you can't know how much!  Anyway ...

A few of the books came in before I left for the cabin on Wednesday and since Max was coming up on Friday, I asked him to bring the rest of the boxes. 

When I got here, I cracked one of the books open and began reading.  "Santa Biblia: The Bible Through Hispanic Eyes" by Justo L. Gonzalez.  Before I had read even a few pages, it hit me hard that I was finally doing what I have wanted to do my entire life.

During the years I worked through my Bachelor's Degree, I read text books because I needed to glean information to pass an exam.  I did all that I had to do, plus a little bit extra because I am a bit of an overachiever.  There wasn't a single book that drew me in and changed or transformed my thinking.  It was simply data that went in; some stuck, most didn't.

I began reading this book and I could almost feel the neurons in my brain firing as fast as possible.  This was more than simply information gathering, this was transformative!  The words flying off the page were challenging me to realign my thoughts regarding something I am passionate about.  Each chapter that I read stirred emotions and ideas.

The book isn't that long and if you want to look at your Christian faith with fresh eyes, it's a great book.  I have to write a critical book review of it for my class and I'll post it when I'm finished.  But, it's a book I'd recommend to anyone ... everyone!

I've begun reading the next book on the list "Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture" by David A. deSilva.  Halfway through the first chapter I realized once again that I was entranced with the ideas he put forth and had to finally stop reading because my brain was filling up too quickly. 

This is what I am meant to do, what I want to ... no, I need to ... learn.  All of those years of searching for a way to fill my mind with the things that I am passionate about and I'm finally here.

As to why I've started the reading 3 weeks prior to classes starting, if you could see the book lists for each of my courses, you'd understand.  Well, that and I'm a complete nerd.  If I can get a good solid grip on these texts before class begins, I can enter in to the conversations and do the work without panicking over the overwhelming amount of reading that needs to happen.  I read at a high rate of speed, and this scares me!  I want to enjoy the experience, so I'll start early and be the nerd that is ahead of everyone else ... for awhile.  I'm sure that it will all catch up to me much too quickly.

I love that I can share this journey with you ... I can't wait for all of this information to be fully internalized so that I can share the information as well!  It's exciting to me!